ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a critique of North American value engineering based on research undertaken by the authors using case studies, interviews and questionnaires. In comparison to North America, the presence of the quantity surveying profession in the UK construction industry is one major important difference in the manner in which cost consultancy is handled within the two countries. As indicated in Chapter 3, in North America costing is undertaken by estimators employed directly by the architect. Therefore, project costing is a much more passive approach than in the UK, with an estimated out turn cost being the consequence for a project rather than cost monitoring or cost control.
